Christian Bale Is Putting On Lots of Weight To Play Dick Cheney

Often regarded as one of the most intense and committed actors working in Hollywood today, Oscar-winner Christian Bale has repeatedly shown both the willingness and the commitment necessary to reshape his body for various roles. 2000 psychological horror film American Psycho – arguably the film that first put Bale on the map as a potential A-lister – featured an extremely muscled up Bale as Patrick Bateman, but by 2004, Bale had reduced himself to almost skeletal proportions for director Brad Anderson’s The Machinist.

Bale’s physical pendulum then swung right back around with 2005’s Batman Begins, which called for the actor to pack on the muscle needed to believably fight crime in Gotham City as the Caped Crusader. 2010’s The Fighter saw Bale once again drop a bunch of weight to play the crack addicted Dicky Ecklund, only to once again do the opposite for 2013’s American Hustle, for which Bale gained 40-plus pounds.

Bale’s latest physical transformation will see him gain a large amount of weight in order to play former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney in an upcoming biopic from director Adam McKay. McKay, of course, made his name directing Will Ferrell comedies like Anchorman and Step Brothers, but quickly established himself as a more serious filmmaker with 2015’s Oscar-winning The Big Short, which counted Bale among its all-star cast. New photos have surfaced on Imgur showcasing Bale’s weight gain to play Cheney.

On the surface, Bale seems like a bit of an odd choice to play Cheney, but he has shown multiple times in the past a clear ability to disappear into his roles, and from a pure talent standpoint is conceivably a good choice to play any role. Plus, having worked with Bale previously, one assumes that McKay has his reasons as to why he thinks the former Batman would be a good choice to play arguably America’s most politically powerful VP.

Joining Bale on McKay’s currently still untitled Cheney biopic are Steve Carell as former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, Dick’s wife. Carell has a long history with McKay, also starring in The Big Short, as well as the Anchorman films. Adams worked with McKay in Talladega Nights prior to her career really taking off, and also worked with Bale in the aforementioned American Hustle. It remains to be seen who will be cast in the role of former president George W. Bush, if anyone.